A tobacco company linked to David Cameron’s top political adviser blocked the
release of details of a meeting where plans to impose plain packaging on
cigarette manufacturers were discussed.

An agreed note of the meeting between the world’s biggest tobacco manufacturer
and health officials was published yesterday, almost six months after it was
held.

Philip Morris, which hired a consultancy run by Lynton Crosby, Mr Cameron’s
election strategist, in Britain in November to advise on a “range of
matters”, warned in the meeting that there was “limited evidence from
Australia as to what the effect of standardised packaging [was] so